Cold Kiss
by Lunnar-Eclipse
Summary: While Sharon Kraller is taking a tour around the prestigious and infamous Valerious Castle, she stumbles upon a mysterious and unknown icy passage which leads to the legend's villain himself.


Chapter 1: The Other Side

"Good evening, I'm Elizabeth Vargas here for 20/20." Her strong voice ran out through the news room, signaling that the show had just begun. "Tonight we go over the ever growing case of Sharon Kraller; thirty-two year old Ohioan who disappeared about two months ago in a small, rural village near Transylvania, Romania. As we all know, this case has become widely known for its lack of evidence as there were no eye-witness accounts, no video-surveillance, not even suspicion of foul play. The police had nothing to go on…until now. It was only just last night, in the ancient and prestigious Valerious castle—the last place where Sharon was ever seen—that tourists found her phone which seemed to document all her whereabouts; from the night she vanished, even all the way up to last Friday. Police have just released this evidence to the public and 20/20 is the first to bring it to you. Here are the logs of Sharon Kraller; the victim of a perfect kidnapping."

The scene turns black and the image on the television screen shifts; becoming a picture of a blond woman standing in front of a small crowd. The image-quality is slightly poor and blurry, but it quickly improves as the phone begins to shoot the video…

"Ladies and gentlemen as you can see, all the old pieces in this home have been perfectly preserved. All the weapons shine as if they are new, and even a few of the oldest painting still show most of their original paint…despite this area's usually nasty weather." A few people in the crowd chuckled; adults snapping photos and taking videos; elders discussing the historic value of the place; and children moaning and whining about the cold and how _boring _this tour was. The tour guide smiled, and soon opened her mouth to speak; all their eyes focusing on her. "We will be moving on now, and I must remind you—flash-photography is not permitted, as it might damage some of the pieces in the castle, especially the older ones…such as this." She stops in front of a large map of Romania, people mumbling their awe and snapping more photos. "This is said to be one of the oldest pieces in the home. Records and entries by the last known daughter of the line—Anna Valerious—state that she could recall her father sitting in this very chair simply staring at the map, trying to decode it's secrets."

"What might have he been looking for?" An older woman asks, the tour guide smiling. "It was said that the very castle of Dracula himself lay behind that map…and Anna's father would not stop until he had found it!" A few of the younger children gasped in fear, hiding behind their parents; how could such a horrible monster be real?! "Did he ever find anything?" Sharon's voice boomed through the phone's cheap speakers, the woman smiling in response. "Of course not, what could he possibly have found behind this old thing? If he had found something, we certainly would have found it!" A few of the tourists chuckled, before following the guide as she made her way off into another direction…all except for one.

Sharon Kraller was not one to simply ignore such an interesting artifact. She looked over the old map and noticed that the tour guide was indeed right; the map was indeed very old. The black lettering indicating the names of cities, rivers and mountains had faded away, leaving only the deepest and darkest imprints behind. Sharon stepped closer and realized that the long inscription on the left corner was all in Latin. She merely shrugged. "It would only make sense that it would be in Latin, considering the time period that this was most likely made in…" She mumbled, her eyes scanning over the passage. It was fairly easy to read and she smirked. _I guess all those years of taking language classes paid off then…_ She thought, soon reading-aloud the paragraph.

She raised her eyebrow as she continued to read the passage, confused as to what it all meant. The whole paragraph merely went on and on about an old curse that had gripped the family and how it was to be broken,

"…_when he has come, the Left-Hand of God, he will aid in the removal of the evil that had so long ago consumed and taken over this land. He will help bring my family peace by destroying this evil…only then is when they shall be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven…By uttering this phrase, it reassures our mighty Savoir the safe passage to the Devil's castle:…" _

Her eyes widened when she saw that the last few parts of the paragraph was missing. Where could it possibly be? She bent down and looked around the cold stone floor, soon finding a small piece of parchment shoved into a corner. She picked it up and slowly unwrinkled it; smoothing out its old surface, being careful not to smudge or rip the ancient paper. She got up and looked at it. It was a curious little piece, with just on phrase being boldly written unto its surface; a strange insignia of a serpent-like creature wrapping around a sword stood in the left-hand corner. "Must have ripped off somehow…" She mumbled, her eyes running soon over the single phrase which read, "In nominae Dei aperire ostium…in the name of the God, open this door…?"

As soon as the phrase left her mouth, the parchment composing the map began freezing over; its entire surface quickly being engulfed by ice. Sharon gasped, switching back on her camera from pause to record the strange phenomena. She watched in horror and amazement as the whole map soon turned into a clear, ice-like mirror shimmering in the light. She stared at it in awe; her mouth agape like a trout and her eyes bulging out of her head. "How—what?" She gasped, walking up to it and placing her hand delicately on its surface. She almost screamed at its reaction.

Her hand seemed to go right through, and it was cold—very cold. She recoiled her hand quickly, and rubbed it, trying to think of what could possibly be happening here. She tentatively placed her hand back unto the mirror the same thing occurring once again. "How is this possible?" She mumbled, pulling her hand in and out of the ice portal over and over again as if testing if this were truly happening.

"Well that is all we have to see in the right wing of the castle, so I will now be leading you all to the left wing!" Sharon gasped. There were coming back, what was she going to do? She couldn't just stand there with her hand through a melting-ice-mirror…it would just cause an uproar of confusion and questions. Plus, the tour-guide-lady might even become rather angry with her for ruining a map that was more than thousands of years old. She began to panic. _What should I do?!_ She jumped up and down out of anxiety and whirled her head to the right as she heard their footsteps becoming louder and louder. She turned her focus back to the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair. _Well, there seems to be only one possible option…though the looking glass I go!_ She braced herself before running into the mirror; the cool ice melting away inch by inch as she made her way to the other side. She shuttered when it finally ended, happy to have her feet back on solid ground. She took one last breath before looking at what lie in front of her. Her jaw dropped out of astonishment.

There, straight ahead of her, stood a tall ominous castle piercing the sky; cloud and snow dancing around its pillars as wind howled and blew all around. She shivered, and looked back at the entrance…or exit…or whatever—to see that it was now gray and hard, as if concrete had taken place of the delicate clear ice. "Great, now I'm stuck!" She snarled, rubbing her arms furiously as a strong gust of wind blew right through her. She looked up at the great castle—the only source of shelter in the area. "Well, you can't stay here, you'll freeze to death! You really don't have any other option." She cursed her common sense before making her slow and shaky way into the castle.

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**Author's Note: So, here I am...writing a fan-fiction based on Van_ Helsing_****…oh boy. Anyways, haha, I hope that you liked this chapter. I got this idea after re-watching the movie and I thought it to be pretty neat, so I made this chapter (Or story, really) for you wonderful fans. Now, I hope you're not confused one the POV in the beginning. What I was thinking is that it would be kind of live James Cameron's _Avatar_; you know how sometimes we could see Jake talking to a camera to record his progress? Well, this is kind of the same concept. All that Sharon had recorded or taken pictures of will be written in (Like, "She recorded…" or "she quickly snapped pictures of…" etc, etc) yet we will be able to see what happens to her in third-person point of view. I hope this makes sense to you all, because if it doesn't—don't worry. This will be the only time that it occurs. (Maybe perhaps during the final chapter as well, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it) Anyways, I hope that you liked this chapter! Please favorite, follow and review. Thanks!**


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